When Every Day Is a Beach Day, Sometimes You’ve Gotta Ski

People say that there are infinite things to do in LA. It’s basically true. And if you ever want a break from all the cool opportunities in the city, you can drive 1-6 hours to get to your favorite ski resort for the famous “ski in the morning, beach at night” experience.

This is my ski crew – incidentally we met in Rome during Viterbi Summer Overseas

There are a couple places to ski here. There’s Big Bear which is nice (and better than anything I had in Wisco), and that’s like <2 hours away. Then there’s the mother of California ski resorts – Mammoth Mountain. It makes a great 6 hour road trip with some fun small towns on the way. What happens in Bishop stays in Bishop.

This is one of the many beautiful views from the top of Mammoth

I’ve actually taken two ski trips this year – one right before break which we planned weeks in advance, then had to leave early so we didn’t get trapped by one of the biggest blizzards to hit the town in years and miss all our flights home, and the spontaneous one we did this semester to use up our already purchased lift tickets and rental vouchers!

Have you ever seen a classier picture on a mountain? So many people complimented Ryan on his Buzz costume. Mostly the lift operators and tiny children.

I learned to put chains on a car (required) for the first time in my life, despite growing up in snowy Wisconsin. I hate snow chains and I never want to do it again as long as I live. Life lessons. The second trip also had an unexpected twist when my friend fell on the third run of the day, wrecked her knee, and had to sit it out in the lodge before we could get her to the hospital. Don’t worry, she’s fine and healing nicely, and gets to have a little cart drive her around campus until she doesn’t need crutches (USC treats its injured students well!)

I’m actually really proud of this picture I took while lazily laying in the snow waiting for my friend to get out of the bathroom.

Anyway, unless you’re a hard-core skiier from Colorado, Mammoth can pretty much satisfy any desire you have to ski (or board, if you swing that way), and even has great runs for beginners, so don’t let a perceived lack of winter sports when you go to school in LA drive you away!

And since you were wondering- yes I do ski in jeans. They have pajama pants underneath, and I’m wearing a couple sweatshirts. I’m too lazy to buy ski clothes, and the secret is to just never fall (:P I’m a pretty solid skiier).